...He glanced back and then looked in awe as he saw hundreds of Elites, Grunts, Hunters and Brutes massing around the city streets...

Couldn't he have a moment's peace without having to fight the Covenant? This the Spartan thought as he ran down the hallway to the elevators. He looked down the shaft of the one that had exploded, decided there must've been an easier way and pressed the button of another elevator. The Chief waited, then the doors opened and he was about to step forward into the lift when there was another explosion and the winch snapped. The elevator disappeared from sight, and he looked down the shaft and saw it fall to the bottom, it exploded sending debris everywhere.

"You could take the other elevator shaft Chief, the pulley is still intact and you could slide down it easily." said the AI, with once again another plan of escape. The Master Chief didn't say anything, but walked over to the other elevator shaft and steadied carefully on the pulley. This building obviously had the older fashioned elevators compared to the anti-gravitational elevators that the UNSC had now invested in. But right now this kind of elevator would save his life, if only there was no other way to get out though. He focused, then jumped and grabbed on with one hand onto the metal wire. Then he put his leg around the wire and since he didn't have a weapon he just slid down the wire with both hands.* * * * * * *1349 Hours (City Time), October 13, 2552 (Military Calendar)/ UNSC Sleeping Quarters, Lobby Floor.

Boom. The explosion rumbled all the way through the building, Corporal Walse had already woken up; the sound of machine gun fire could be heard from the streets. He of course had his Battle Rifle and his M6D Pistol, a couple of Fragmentation grenades and a knife. Already he had killed several Grunts that had attempted to come in through the windows that were broken. The blood of the aliens had splattered the floor and walls, and the bodies had been dragged to get out of the way. The Corporal was with seven other marines; even though he hadn't had enough time to learn their names he still knew they were good fighters. Some of the best fighters as seen back at New Tatley. In the midst of the rumbling of the explosion an Elite jumped through the window unnoticed. It shot at the nearest marine who fell back with a scorched arm, he was still alive but bleeding heavily. Corporal fired until it shredded the alien into pieces, its purple gore showered Walse and his comrades.

"This blood don't taste so good." then he spat out a purple stream of the Covenant gore. Then he wiped his mouth and coughed. The Corporal looked at the marine that was hurdled on the floor, who was clutching his burned and bleeding arm. Walse told someone to stay behind with him, and he then he turned to the window. He saw three soldiers crouching and walking slowly in the streets and then suddenly one of them was shot with a plasma shot. The others returned fire and hid behind two cars that were parked on the street. Corporal Walse went into the next room which could be entered right beside the elevators. Through that broken window he could see the enemy; it was three Elites and several Grunts. They were all standing in the street not aware that a handful of humans were aiming at them with Pistol through the window beside them. Several gunshots rang out as the Corporal gave the signal, the first two heads of the Elites exploded. Then a frag was tossed into the fray, and it bounced off a Grunt who kicked it to the last Elite, it exploded sending the alien into another street. The final four Grunts turned to the window, and then were assaulted by the other marines that were down the street. Perfect flank, thought the Corporal. And it was perfect, for the moment. Suddenly a Shadow came down the street, came to the window, and opened fire. There was a full load of people in that vehicle, and they all opened fire through the broken window. The blood from a marine behind him sprayed all across the Corporal's body, and the marine beside him gurgled as a shot hit him in the face. Walse ducked, and the other marines had opened fire. Another soldier was hit, and it fell forward and speared himself on the broken shard of glass. The other four marines had taken cover too and walked over to Walse who had his back pressed to the wall. Then the bright blue light of a plasma grenade came in and fused itself to a marines head. The grenade turned a blue white and the marine screamed, two seconds later it exploded. All vision disappeared as the Corporal was thrown out the window, ripping open his stomach on a sharp piece of glass on his way out.* * * * * *1350 Hours (City Time), October 13, 2552 (Military Calendar)/ UNSC Sleeping Quarters, 3rd Floor.

The Chief had an obstacle in the way; the elevator had frozen on the 3rd floor and he had simply had to open the top of the elevator and walk out of the shaft. He had just started going down the hall when all of a sudden, the windows down the hall shattered as the hull of a Covenant drop ship rammed it. The hinges of the ship dropped open, and five or six Jackals jumped into the building. They immediately started firing at the Chief; his shields were nearly wiped off his HUD before ducked and rolled. When he got back up he charged the nearest Jackal, rammed it, and sent the creature flying out the window. The second he grabbed and threw into another firing alien, blue blood spilled all over the floor as the Jackal shot its teammate and was hit by the flying dead body. The Master Chief grabbed a plasma grenade and chucked it at another Jackal who was retreating along with two others. It stuck its body, which was no more as it was tossed out the window and hit the side of the drop ship. The explosion also killed the other Jackals that were with the other, and their body parts had been strewn across the hallway. Then the Spartan grabbed another grenade and tossed it at the drop ship, it exploded which must've caused some serious damage because the ship went into a nose dive and crashed into the street. He looked out the window, and saw that it was leaning against the wall vertically, and it was just close enough to jump to without getting hurt.

"My readings indicate that you are welcome to jump, although it will hurt on the second jump to the street." indicated Cortana.

"I'll take my chances." said the Spartan, who had grabbed a Plasma Pistol and a Needler. Before the AI could reply, the Chief had already jumped out the window, landed on the top of the drop ship, and jumped down to the street. He rested and let his shields recharge, the last jump had taken away all of his shields without taking any health. The Spartan sighed, and Cortana said to go to the lobby where he had first entered the building. He agreed and made his way there; he heard shouts from troops in nearby streets and saw a couple of marines run across the street in front of him. They didn't notice him; they were trying to get somewhere quick and were best left alone. The Spartan turned the corner and saw a Shadow moving down the street, but it was far ahead and wasn't considered a threat. Bodies of the Covenant littered the street, and a body of a human soldier was lying with them. The Chief approached the body and flipped it over; and he winced behind his reflective visor. It was Corporal Walse, his stomach torn open and face half melted possibly due to plasma burns. Then he looked behind him and saw the broken window, another marine had been impaled by a long sharp piece of glass and was bent over hanging over the wall below the window. The Spartan looked inside the window; all over the walls was blood, plasma scoring and a large black explosion mark. On the floor were several bodies who were probably accompanied by the Corporal, and either they were missing a head or arm or some ligament was torn open. He continued down the street, and stepped over another two marines who had been killed in a skirmish most likely by the Shadow. The Master Chief walked inside and there laid a soldier who was huddled on the ground holding onto a scorched arm. Beside him there was another dead soldier who had been peppered with needlers, you could tell because he was missing half his arm and leg. The Spartan approached the injured marine, who in turn stared at him.

"What happened here, marine?" asked the seven foot soldier.

"The-I... As you can see I've been shot in the arm, they left me with this guy who was supposed to protect me..." he gestured towards the fallen marine beside him. "Then the rest of the squad disappeared through that room, and pretty soon I heard gunshots and explosions. A few seconds after that a Shadow came into view and shot that guy until he collapsed, they must've thought I was dead because I'm still here." After that story the Chief told him to follow him and helped the soldier stand on the ground.

"Do you think you can still carry a pistol?" asked the Spartan, the marine nodded and was given a Plasma Pistol and the Chief grabbed an M6D, "Let's go then." "Chief, we should probably get to the Barracks, we have to find Sergeant Lubz and he is most likely there. If not then we can find where he went there too." said Cortana as he head down the street. Ahead he could see a lot of marines gathering around one spot, and they were all shooting at a specific target. When he got closer he could see several Hunters, shields raised along with their Fuel Rod Guns. Some of the massive beasts were shooting at the clusters of human soldiers, sending dead bodies flying towards the running Spartan and marine. Raising his Pistol, zooming in with the 2X, he shot the exposed fleshy orange spot of a Hunter, the luminescent blood sprayed on another alien before it dropped to the ground. More explosions rang out, and several more marines were sent flying. Finally the Chief got to a marine, who was firing at the Hunters.

"Where can I find Sergeant Lubz?" the Spartan had to yell. The soldier turned from the battle to face the Chief.

"What?!" the marine had to yell, Private Oranno scrolled across the Chief's HUD. The Spartan repeated himself.

"Sorry, I wouldn't know, why not ask somebody in the barracks!" he pointed a small building which was blocked by the Hunters. "You will have to take care of some of them Hunters though!" Then a blast came from another Hunter, hit a marine flat in the stomach and the explosion tossed the upper half of his body into the air. The legs collapsed to the ground spewing blood over the other troopers. They ignored it, continuing to fire at the oncoming aliens. The Chief quickly primed a grenade, threw it at a group of Hunters, and watched it explode. The blast sent one of the monsters flying a few feet which landed on top of a dead marine. One of the marines broke loosed from the wall formation, and tried to run past a Hunter who turned around, leaving his exposed skin to be shot at. That's exactly what the Chief did; he squeezed the trigger and a large hole in the beast's skin. Then another turned to the soldier and was about to hit him with his humongous shield but was stopped with another bullet. Then before he could shoot out another Hunter it had already smacked the running marine and paralyzed him. The soldier was still alive when the massive alien raised its gun and shot the marine in the head. But to do that the alien had to turn around, and was assaulted with bullets then fell forwards, dead. The Spartan now had a section he could run through; the alien flank had broken apart. So he picked up the wounded marine he was with, put away his weapon, and sprinted through the slowly closing hole in the alien wall. The Hunters barely had time to respond when a green armored seven foot soldier dashed through. He had made it, although the Hunters were firing at the Spartan he had already made it into the barracks, Fuel Rod blasts rocked the building as they hit the brick wall. There were three marines in this one room, all wounded and looking nervous, he put the soldier he was carrying down. Then he went to the General's office. Inside this room was a grim looking man, he bore many badges on his chest and held an SMG, looking at it carefully.

He looked up from his gun. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to know the location of Sergeant Jacob Lubz." responded the Chief.

[ "Oh... He disappeared a few minutes ago, something about going to the downtown area and bringing back the civilians who are locked up in some safety bunker." answered the General, who gave a map of the city to the Spartan, then pointed out: "It says where we are and where the civilian bunker is, if you go there than you can help bring them back." The Chief nodded and exited the room, then exited the barracks. His new missions were to find Lubz, get back with the civilians, and then find out what to do next. He wondered how long it would take to get to X41, and with that he opened the door of the barracks... ...To Be Continued